Fericirea Teoria
by GraceTheGraceless
Summary: Richard Grayson and Wally West have lived there whole lives with a secret; they have the cursed eyes of medusa. Whenever they are under stress or are scared, their eyes turn red and curse those gaze into them suffer whatever curse is possessed by the barer. Mistakes are made, and Robin must decide: does he want to be Richard Grayson or the Boy Wonder? -COMPLETE-
1. Prologue 00 - Red Eyes Make A Monster?

"I'm sure you'd know all about being locked away, little Robin." Sportsmaster nodded in approval of Cheshire's comment, the words leaving her mouth in a fierce, taunting hiss.

The boy wonder tumbled back, tripping over himself and crumbling within an instant. For the most part, the team was confused. But Kid Flash knew.

No, Wally West knew.

He shot a worried glance at Robin, who, despite his best efforts, was shaking, tears slipping from his eyes. He mumbled something, a plea, from his little corner of life.

"What was that, Red Eyes?" The cat-like assassin sneered.

"Stop it, Cheshire!" Artemis screamed, furious that her sister could show compassion to her and only her, leaving the rest of the team to die of sorrow.

"But look!" Cheshire continued, starting to hate the acid-thick tone of her own voice. She was only doing what she had to do. Right? Surely that had to justify what she was doing to the poor boy... Right?

"He's a freak!" She sneered once more. "A monster!"

Wally stood and watched, completely helpless, as his best friend pounded the ground with white fists.

Robin was so tempted.

So tempted to rip off his mask and turn them all to stone. But then what? then run away forever? To abandon whatever hope he had and start over again? He couldn't do that.

His mother had been the one to tell him about his eyes, but had also been cautious to teach Dick about not fearing his abilities. His eyes, she had said, were not a gift, nor a curse; they were a part of him that was to be loved and cherished as the rest. He had promised both of his parents that he would never run away from the responsibility of his eyes, and that he would never be afraid to use them. Even if he was a monster, his parents were surely angels, guiding his every step.

"I'm n- not afraid of you." His voice was small, and rather pathetic from a villainous point of view, but still there. "B-because I'm not...I'm not a monster."

That was all it took. Those simple words of confession was all it took to remember just how happy he was that they were true.

He could remember the first time someone had told him that.

The first time someone had helped both he and Wally, their eyes making them cripple with fear for themselves.

Roy Harper had said it.

_"You are not monsters!"_


	2. Chapter 01 - The Archer

Roy Harper was the kindest soul they knew. Throughout their lives, they had been called mistakes, freaks, monsters, and worse; they had been beaten and bruised by everyone around them for things they could not control.

The worst part was: they believed it.

For so many years, the two boys lived their lives thinking they were freaks of nature, creatures that couldn't possibly be loved. For years, they lived their lives in fear. Not of others, nor of what others could do to them form being different, but of what they could do to others _because _they were different.

Roy Harper couldn't stand this. When he first met the boys, they themselves had only been close by a few days. Their eyes, which Roy imagined were big and beautiful, were wrapped in bandages, forming a crease over their noses. He gasped, quiet enough so they couldn't hear him. Surely they couldn't see him with all the thick white wraps around their eyes.

Ollie had told him. His uncle Ollie. Of course, Oliver Queen wasn't _really_ Roy's uncle, but he was as close as one could get. Even with the kind words, phrases warning against removing such eye-covering materials, saying that nobody had seen their eyes, not even each other.

Despite all the tales he had been told, all the warnings given, and especially all the evil he had faced in the past, Roy couldn't see children as anything other than wholesome. He saw halos overs their heads and wings behind their backs, despite eyes that were so menacing, they were hidden behind thick cloth.

"Hello," he smiled, wondering if they could see him through their blindfolds.

"..." The dark-haired boy kept his mouth shut, seeming as though such an action was constantly practiced.

Silence. He was met with complete and utter silence from both. Roy noticed that the ginger boy seemed to have a harder time keeping his mouth shut, especially when in comparison to the raven-haired boy, who seemed perfectly content keeping his lips zipped.

"Hello?" Roy tried again, inching closer to the two. Upon closer inspection, the archer found the dark-haired boy's lips were moving. Barely a whisper escaped, but he could make out clumped syllables in something equivalent to gibberish in his ears.

"_Eu sunt un monstru… eu sunt un monstru… eu sunt un monstru...eu sunt un monstru…"_

He was muttering the same phrase over and over, never stumbling or stuttering. The precision put into such repetitive phrases led Roy to believe it was a native language to the boy. His ginger companion didn't seem comprehend anything he was saying, nor mind that he could not understand, simply staying stiller than Roy thought possible. Not quite knowing what to do, Roy sat down next to the dark-haired boy, still wondering if they could see him.

"My name's Roy. I'm an archer."

The ginger boy opened his mouth, slowly and with much hesitation. "I-I'm W-w-wally…" he mumbled. "I...I make people...feel funny…"

This was puzzling. Beyond puzzling, in fact. Feel funny? What did that mean?

"Sunt Richard ... e-eu congela o-oameni…" Wally leaned over and whispered something to the dark-haired boy's ear, most likely a reminder that Roy spoke English.

"I-I'm Richard...I m-make people...freeze…" He stumbled over the letters, but pronounced them near-perfectly. Richard must have learned English along with whatever other language he had previously been speaking.

"Let's see those eyes, alright?" he said reaching out for Richard's blindfold. The boy shrieked and cowered back, shaking.

"Don't! You'll turn to stone!"

Stone? Did this boy have the eyes of medusa or something?

"I promise I won't turn into stone," Roy said, trying his best to project a comforting tone. "I promise."

Richard's mouth creased to the side, clearly nervous as Roy's pale hands reached behind to undo the blindfold of while fabric. It fell effortlessly to the ground, revealing Richard's eyes.

The were almond-shaped,almost like a cat's, and wide with fear. The most shocking part was the color. Richard's eyes were bright, candy-apple red, as though they were soaked in blood.

Roy reached forward and undid Wally's blindfold, met with eyes shaped more like squares. The color was the same as Richard's eyes; bright, burning red.

Roy suddenly felt scared, and looked down to see his feet were turning gray. He could no longer feel his leg muscles, as the petrification spread slowly up his body. Turning to the boys, he was they were crying.

"We're monsters!" they cried. Suddenly, Roy remembered what Richard had been mumbling when he first entered the room.

_Eu sunt un monstru._

_I'm a monster._

Without a second thought, the archer leaned forward and scooped both boys into his arms, hugging them tightly. They both stiffened; confused.

"You are not monsters."

His voice was quiet, yet firm, as if he knew the truth. Looked back at them, Roy wiped their still tears away with a gloved hand, smiling. He looked down at his lap, and found the stone that had encased his lower half was fading quickly away. Looking back at the boys, the red color of their eyes faded as well. Richard's eyes were baby blue, brighter and kinder than Roy had ever seen before, and Wally's were a bright, joyful shade of green.

They smiled as he smiled, laughed and he laughed, and cried as he cried.

The cursed children, once alone even with each other within arms reach, had found a friend, brother, and teammate in Roy Harper.

Within the archer, they found love.


	3. Chapter 02 - Pancake Saturday

The first step was to accept it.

Roy spent every free moment with Richard and Wally, locked in a constant effort to allow them to smile each day.

"My uncle Oliver says he's gonna make me a hero soon, so I'm going into special training," Roy said one day when Richard was doing algebra, Wally writing an English essay. They both looked up at him, trying hard to keep their eyes under control.

Recently, they had tried extremely hard to keep their eyes from changing, doing simple tasks to distract themselves (and occasionally each other) from the fear that pooled in their stomachs whenever the change began.

Sometimes, they would sing, or hum, or even whistle.

Other times they would recite poetry, or just talk about their lives and their dreams, or just about how lucky they were to know Roy Harper.

"I figured you guys might want to try, so I asked him if you two could come train too,"

This really caught their attention. Wally began what Richard and Roy called "The Endless Blabber Chain".

"Really!? That'd be so cool! Richard and I could be actual superheros some day! That sounds like an awesome idea! Leave it to you, Roy. You always think of clever ideas like that. It's kinda your thing now. Right? I'm right, aren't I? Ooh, remember that one time when you-"

"Wally!" Roy cut him off, not quite yelling, but making his tone noticeable.

"Right, sorry about that…"

Roy cleared his throat, and ruffled Wally's bright orange hair. The ginger boy grinned, squirming away playfully.

"I want to do acrobatics." Richard said suddenly, setting his pencil down. Roy smiled at him, pausing from the action of putting Wally in a light headlock.

"That's wonderful, Richard! Tracing your skill back to your old Flying Grayson days, I'm very proud of you."

The ebony-haired boy grinned, blushing. "T-Thanks! I-uh-I wanted to trace myself back to the roots a little...starting with my name."

"Your name?" Wally questioned, still in the headlock.

"My parents used to call me Dick. D-Dickey-bird when I was performing. Until they…" his voice trailed off, head hanging low.

"I think that's wonderful. We can call you Dick from now on, right, Wally?" Roy asked, releasing his head in favor of patting Dick's dark locks.

"Yeah," Wally grinned. "Dick will do just fine."

The subject wasn't touched again for the rest of the night, silence being a comfortable background for the trio.

Later in the evening, when all homework had been completed, dinner eaten, and pajamas worn, Wally pondered on his own choices.

"Could I do science stuff?" he asked Roy when he went to brush his teeth. "For my training, I mean. Could I work in science?"

Roy smiled. After Dick's yearning for return to the trapeze, he wondered what Wally would want to do. Now he had an answer. Science. The field suited Wally, as he was always curious about the world around him.

"Science sounds perfect for you, Wally. I look forward to seeing your progress."

The words of encouragement stayed with Wally well after he fell asleep. His dreams were pleasant, as they always were when he slept-over with Roy. He woke refreshed and happy, none-the-less groggy and tired when he stumbled into the kitchen.

The first thing he noticed was how empty it was. The kitchen was never empty as 8:30a.m. Especially on a Saturday, which this was.

Saturday was Pancake Day, and Dick was always in the kitchen making pancakes on Pancake Saturday because that was just how Pancake Saturday worked.

It was puzzling to say the least.

Wally snuck down the hall, past Roy's room (Roy never woke until somebody woke him up; he called it a perk of being a teenager, Wally called it being lazy) and up to Dick's door.

There was no light seeping from the door sill, and no sound from the other side of the pine-made door.

Wally knocked, but was met with the same silence that kept his heart beating quickly, worryingly-so. Why wasn't he answering?

He turned the handle and pushed forward, stepping into the dark room.

"Dicky?" he asked, stepping towards the bed, where a Richard-sized lump was buried under the covers.

Once he was close enough to see his friend's face, he gasped, hands covering his mouth, sweaty palms and all.

Wally took a few steps back, stumbling a little.

"Roy!"


	4. Chapter 03 - I Don't Know What To Do

Roy never got scared.

Since meeting the boys, he tried to be the fearless older-brother-figure they probably needed to stay sane.

So when Wally burst through his door, panicked expression in his eyes, Roy got a little scared.

He was tempted to congratulate the carrot-top boy on his control involving his eyes, but the panic in his expression he wore left a different feeling at the bottom of Roy's stomach.

"Something's wrong," He said hurriedly, pulling Roy from his cocoon of blankets and down to Richard's room.

Upon seeing the boy, Roy gasped, staring at the clump underneath the covers.

Dick was unmoving and silent, apart from the quick, raspy breaths he was drawing in. His cheeks were flushed and red, and sweat dripped down his forehead, matting his now-sticky hair to his forehead.

Roy gently swept Richard's ebony locks away and placed a cool hand on his forehead.

"Shit." Roy swore under his breath. "He's burning up…"

Wally stared at his brother (family didn't end with blood) with worried eyes, contemplating what could have caused such an fever. The only thing he knew that could make a fever this bad so _fast_ was-

"Roy, it's his eyes."

"What?" Roy had pulled the covers up to Richard's chin, and had been staring worryingly at the boy. Now he was looking right at Wally.

The ginger boy swallowed hard. "Our eyes...they can make us sick, like from the inside out. Th-there may have been a cure though! I remember Dick telling me about it. I…" he ran his bony fingers through his soft, orange hair.

"I could try to recreate it."

That was how Wally found himself in the basement lab his Uncle Barry kept. If there was any hope of making Richard better, Wally knew it was within his recreating the medicine.

Dick had told him about it when they first met. He said that when his parents first met, they recorded their eye symptoms in several notebooks, which had been locked up when Richard had been picked up by Batman and the Justice League.

That wouldn't have stopped Richard though…

He would have hacked the system, and found the perfect notebook. So that's just what Wally decided to do.

Finding the right one, however, wasn't easy. After 35 minutes of coding, Wally was afraid he would get caught sneaking back and forth after rooting around in each notepad he found.

So he took all of them.

This led Wally into a different sort of problem. He tore through each experiment, giving each page noticeable wear.

He performed experiment after experiment, working his body to the breaking point. It seemed that he would try anything, not caring about what it was.

This came back to bite him in the ass.

Wally flipped through yet another tattered notebook, thumbing through equations that didn't seem to have any meaning to him anymore. He was becoming fixated on work, but not without cause; Richard was getting worse.

His fever was in the upper 102 degree range, and he hadn't been able to stay awake for longer than a few minutes. Roy had been at his side every minute since Wally had led him to the sick boy, as Richard's father, along with Wally's uncle and Roy's uncle and aunt were all on a trip.

Now, as all the boys knew, the frequently taken "trips" were hardly child-less vacations. They were, in fact, Justice League off-planet missions that required Roy to babysit. A lot.

It was known only throughout the three children that Roy's uncle was Green Arrow, his aunt was Black Canary, Richard's adoptive father was Batman, and Wally's uncle Barry was the Flash.

But the thoughts of said away missions weren't what kept Wally going, it was how much pain Dick seemed to be in. He was constantly tossing and thrashing in his sleep, dry coughs escaping his lips.

Finally, Wally mixed a few chemicals together, mind only half-focused on the work in front of him until-!

_**BOOM!**_

An small-scaled explosion ripped through the basement of Oliver Queen's home, and out of the smoke ran Wally West. Or, perhaps he was flying; with the speed he had, Roy couldn't tell.

"Wally?!" He shouted, eyes locked on the orange-ish strip of light that darted around the house.

"Roy! I can't stop!"


	5. Chapter 04 - Robin's Fictional World

He felt fuzzy. Warm and fuzzy. Warm and fuzzy and lost.

Indeed, Robin felt lost, and yet he had been to this place once before; it was his Fictional World.

The walls weren't walls at all but were miles and miles of night sky, faintly glowing stars scattered on top of an inky surface with no end in sight. The floor was ripped in different areas, revealing striped patterns and golden fabrics. Light pooled from the cracks in the floor, mixing with the faint glow of the stars.

With so much light one would think the room would be bright and merry, but the light was faint, and barely present.

Robin used to assume that this place was bright before The Fall. Before his parents smiling faces turned to expressions of fear and terror as their bodies fell; there wings had been clipped the moment Tony Zucco loosened the bolts. The bolts that held the Flying Graysons' trapeze wires in place, making the death-defying performance of the Flying Graysons safe.

Only The Fall wasn't safe.

It was terrifying.

Richard had been waiting on the platform, prepared to do a triple flip into his mamica's arms, but then they fell.

Down, down, down, their body's tangled together in a sloppy, tangled array of limbs until _splat!_

They hit the ground, crimson blood flowing from the mess of body parts. gasps replacing the cheery circus music that had accompanied what used to be an act of wonder.

Now it was a tragedy.

Robin often wondered if his Fictional World even existed before The Fall. Perhaps there was a blank nothingness of a dreamland, until The Fall came into place, and his eyes created a world in which Dick could hide from all others.

When he stepped, the floor swayed under his feet, creating the illusion that the floor could cease to exist in 2 seconds, or 20 seconds, or no seconds at all.

Despite this, Dick took step after step, until he was running, and the swaying of the floor had become nothing more than ripples that chased his energetic movement.

The walls reflected images he knew he had seen before; The Fall, meeting Wally, meeting Bruce (who he would later find out was _the_ Batman), meeting Roy.

He soon found his lungs either unable or unwilling to intake enough oxygen to keep him alive, and his Limbs too heavy to take another step.

He crumbled, falling to the floor with a small splat, unlike The Fall, yet too similar for comfort. He woke to a dark room, a feeling to boiling-hot for comfort, and a gentle murmur in his ear.

"Dicky-bird," the voice mumbled, placing a cool fabric of sorts on his forehead. "Wally wants to tell you something,"


	6. Chapter 05 - Medusa Mei Mary Richard

Dick panted, breath near-visible as he drew in shallow gasps, silently begging for air.

"Come on Dick," Roy mumbled, gently rubbing Richard's cheeks and forehead with a cold cloth. "Just stay awake for a little while, okay?"

He nodded, unable to make a verbal response; his throat was too dry to speak, and he wasn't ready to take such a daring chance to speak regardless of the pain he felt.

"Good," Roy set the cloth over Richard's forehead, and turned around, where Wally was shaking in Richard's desk chair. Only he wasn't just shaking. He was _vibrating_.

The movement Wally seemed to be emitting caused Dick to squint in a failing attempt to cover his eyes.

"Sorry, bro." Wally said, bowing his head down. He didn't stop shaking. "I'd stop if I could, but...I can't."

What happened next seemed like a blur to Richard. The words that pooled from Wally's mouth were a jumbled mess from start to finish, leaving both Dick and Roy in awe and confusion.

"IwastryingtomakeamedicinefromyourparentsnotebookonlyIdidn'tknowwhichoneitwassoikeptrecreatingallthesefunkyexperimentsandImayormaynothaverecreatedunclebarry'sflashexperimentandintheprocesseverythingblewupincludingyourparentsnotebooks!"

Wally gasped for breath after he finished, face hinting a pinkish hue from the sudden lack of oxygen.

Dick and Roy simply stared at him, mouths open. it was clear that the "Endless Blabber Chain" had become much more powerful.

"What?" Richard finally asked, the shock that had set in fading away, leaving a slight numb feeling. He mostly hurt from the sudden illness, but the numbness was gladly welcomed.

"I…" Wally paced himself this time, choosing his words carefully. "I was trying to figure out if there was anything about your getting sick in your parents' notebook."

"Wait," Dick interrupted. "Why the notebook? My eyes...my eyes have nothing to do with it."

Roy looked over at the fever-stricken boy, eyebrows arched in confusion. "Wait, how do you know that? You got sick so suddenly…"

Dick cleared his throat. "Mamica told me that we never get sick suddenly because of our eyes. It is a gradual, painful process." He shuddered at the thought. "When I was little I had appendixes and thought it was because of my eyes."

Richard remembered being little, wondering what was the human side of him and what was because of his eyes. He questioned everything; his height, weight, hair color, even his trapeze skills.

His parents soon decided to give him a full explanation of what his eyes were.

_"Long ago, a rag-doll monster wandered the earth. She was lonely, and in search of companionship. The monster thought humans would be the perfect friends, but instead of welcoming hoper, they shunned her. _

_"The rag-doll monster had red eyes, and hair that wove itself into living, breathing snakes. She cared for the snakes, and loved her ruby eyes more than anything in the world, but the humans feared such qualities. They discovered that when she looked into the eyes of the little monster when she was angry, the one gazing into her eyes would turn to stone. She could make her presence invisible, draw all too much attention to herself, project emotions onto others, see areas around herself that were far too shadowed for regular eyes, and could even reach the thoughts of others. Because of her abilities, the monster was known as Medusa, after a mythological figure. _

_"The monster was shunned by all but one, who took her as a lover. Together, they had a child, Mei. However, because the man loved the monster, he was hunted down and killed. Fearing Mei would be next, Medusa made a bargain with a magic snake. The snake offered to help create a world without time, far out of the cruel reaches of those who wished to harm Medusa or Mei. In exchange for such a world, the snake asked for the power of Medusa, except for one. Medusa's descendants would carry the power of petrification, through a snake buried inside their body, which would cause the owner's eyes to turn bright red when the snake showed its magic._

_"Medusa agreed, and was cast aside for the next generation, Mei's later child, me. Your father, on the other hand, gained his powers after nearly dying during a circus accident. We think that's how the snakes come for people other than our bloodline."_

Richard still remembered his parents telling stories about Medusa and Mei whenever he had a nightmare. The simple thought of it gave him comfort, despite the anxious feeling that was practically radiating off of Wally.

What could he have done?

"She and Tati explained the whole thing. The Medusa of our bloodline is of Romani descent and everything."

Wally breathed a sigh of relief, but soon sucked it back in. He let out a small, nervous laugh.

"Yeah...and about the notebook...when I performed the experiment I kinda..." He swallowed hard.

"Blew it up."


	7. Chapter 06 - Back Then

It was happening again.

He was hurting Wally.

Richard remembered when they first met, before gaining any control over his eyes, when Wally had made the mistake of looking into them. Just because he had a snake too didn't mean he would be unaffected.

The poor boy had looked directly into the eyes of Medusa, and felt the instant effects. Back then, Richard always reacted poorly when his powers went out of control. He dropped to his knees, cradling his head within his hands. The rest was a blur of phrases and booming voices, worried shouts and panicked screams of desperation.

"_Richard? Richard, where are you!" _

"_Wally!"_

"_Oh my god…"_

"_He's petrified!"_

"_I hafta fix this! Bats, how do I fix this?!"_

"_He did this! It's all his fault!"_

And now, after all that was happening, Richard felt a familiar feeling. An uncomfortable heat pooled in the back of his throat, spilling over into his skull. He felt hot tears leaking from the corners of his eyes as he looked up from his lap to find Wally, whose wide eyes were locked on his legs. Wally's legs were stuck in place, frozen as a gray color slowly crept up to his hips.

_Richard let loud, messy sobs escape his lips, unable to tear his eyes from Wally West's. _

"_H-help me…" Dick sobbed, "Mamica! Tati! Help me!" _

Wally took a deep breath, attempting to calm himself down. If he could, there was a chance he wouldn't become a statute forever. If he could just control his eyes...not hide or push their magic down, but use them at will…

_...maybe there could be a light at the end of the tunnel. _

_Richard looked into Wally's eyes, and sucked in a short, gasp of a breath as the effects of the ginger boy's magic took effect. _

'_It's okay,' said a voice in his head. 'You're okay. Calm down, you can fix it.'_

Dick felt the tears slow to a stop, and he fixed his position on the bed so he was looking right into Wally's eyes. They had turned red as Richard's had, but a smile played on Wally's lips.

_Richard felt the calmness sweep him off his feet, and he blinked, trying to clear the red from his eyes. Looking down at Wally's legs, he found the petrification had stopped, and was slowly creeping back down his legs until it met the floor and disappeared. _

"You're okay…" Dick mumbled, wrapping his arms around Wally.

"_I-I'm sorry!" he choked, smile still on his face, arms around Wally West. "I didn't mean to!"_

"I know you didn't. And it's okay now. Everything's okay now."


	8. Chapter 07 - Ginger Punch

Wally had had his newly-acquired power of superspeed for a week now.

A week in which he had confessed to his uncle about recreating the flash experiment and blowing up the notebooks, trained, and bragged about his newly found super powers.

Despite how happy it made Roy to see that Wally had a power, he also saw how it affected Dick. The boy had gone home almost immediately after Wally gained his superspeed, and both Wally and Roy had come to visit every day.

He was better than before, but he still had a fever and a scratchy cough that forced his father, Bruce Wayne, to keep him home from school.

Wayne was happy his son had brothers like Wally and Roy though. They looked out for him, and proved they loved him when they came by to visit him each day. Only, Richard didn't seem happy about it. At all.

Roy and Wally would be shown into Wayne Manor by the family butler, Alfred (who was so close to Richard that he was practically the boy's grandfather). Once inside they would heat up some soup sent by Roy's aunt, and bring it upstairs to Richard's room.

From there they would help him sit up, eat his dinner, and would tell him about what he missed at training. None of this seemed to upset Richard; in fact, it was what came _after_ that which made him so upset.

Wally would talk endlessly on about his super speed. About how fun it was, about how strong it made him feel, and, especially, how much training Richard would have to do in order to catch up to his "expert skills".

He didn't ask if Richard had picked out a superhero name, or if he found a costume, or even if he was excited about continuing his trapeze work. All Wally talked about was himself, and it made Richard feel rather bad about his own superhero work.

In reality, he had chosen a name. Richard wanted to be known as Robin, the Boy Wonder. Before The Fall, his mother used to say he flew like a robin when on the trapeze, and the memory always made him smile. Bruce had suggested the Boy Wonder part, as he felt it added to the glory that Dick would fight alongside _the_ Batman. What better name could be used?

As for a costume, Alfred had helped Richard find his old costume from the Flying Grayson act. Together they sewed it up, replaced a few parts, and added a cape. Alfred had even let him try it on before washing it. The memory of wearing such a familiar article of clothing made the ebony-haired boy smile. He remembered when his mother had given him the costume, claiming it was magic because only members of the circus got to touch it, or even see it up close. Mary had sewn it herself from scratch, taking 5 long months to design and produce a costume that fit her little robin as perfectly as it did.

In the end, though, Dick wasn't sure if he even _wanted_ to become a hero or not. With Wally talking his ear off and the memories of The Fall plaguing his memories, it was hard to see if the idea would even be worthwhile.

Until Roy brought it up.

He didn't "bring it up" as much as he actually punched Wally in the arm when he reached his tenth minute talknig about his new costume, so busy bragging that he didn't see Dick burry himself under the covers to mull in self-pity.

"Dick?" Wally asked, poking the lumpy figure under the sheets. "I'm sorry I keep bragging...I'm just excited. I'm sure it'll wear off once you come to train with us."

"Maybe I don't want to," Came Richard's muffled reply.

Didn't want to? Hadn't Dick been stoped about becoming a hero?

"How can I be a hero when I have so much to catch up on?" Richard asked dully from under his blanket.

Roy gave him a comforting pet from the other side of the comforters. "Well, you already have experience. Bats knows everything he wants to teach you, and patrol in Gotham isn't _too_ dangerous for somebody like you."

Baby blue eyes peeked out from the bedsheets. "Really?"

"Really." Roy continued. "Now come on, you have to be a little excited about all this. We already know that Wally's name will be Kid Flash, and I'm gonna be called Speedy, but how about you? What name did you pick?"

A brief moment of silence followed as Richard blinked up at his older brothers before grinning widely at them.

"Robin."


	9. Chapter 08 - Minor Doubt

"Again."

A black-haired boy nodded at the order and repeated a perfectly executed series of moves, as though he was in the midst of battle, where the tiniest mistake could cost him his life.

He ended in a low stance, panting through parted lips before standing up straight, expression blank.

"Again."

He groaned silently under his breath, wishing the last time the last and that this would be final.

"Robin," a deep, husky voice from the shadows. Out of the darkness stepped a man whose demeanor was as dark and petrifying as his voice. His face was shielded by a mask, which hooked onto a cape that covered a gray costume. On the front was the symbol of a bat, leading to his grand title; Batman.

"Robin," he repeated, placing a hand on his son's shoulder. "You seem distracted."

The dark-haired boy looked down, eyes covered by a mask, much like Batman's only smaller.

"I just...at first, training felt great. I was flying on the trapeze just like I used to, but...it feels really…" he paused, searching for the right word.

"Empty."

Batman blinked, somewhat surprised at his sidekick's choice of words, though his expression could hardly be changed to show it. His face remained still, cheeks almost pulled back forcefully in an effort to hide what he thought.

After all, facial expression was a huge part of the truth, and if he could help it, Bats preferred not to speak without opening his mouth.

Instead, he led his partner off the mat and onto a resting bench.

"Do you know why you feel empty?" he asked. The question would have seemed stupid and insensitive to anybody else, but it proved to work well with Robin, especially when he first came to live with Bruce.

He nodded, looking down at his feet. "I might fall. I know I won't, and even if I did, it wouldn't end like with...them."

Bruce knew it still hurt to talk about The Fall, yet, his son was so strong when it came to the matter of subject. Too strong…

"But there's that doubt...that doubt that somebody could fall like they did."

"Richard." Batman sighed, pulling back his mask and stepping back into the world of billionaire Bruce Wayne. "Nobody's is going to fall."

His son looked up, eyes still hidden by his mask.

"Do you know why?"

Robin shook his head, beads of sweat dripping down his cheeks. Bruce reached forward and peeled off Robin's mask, leaving wide, baby blue orbs staring up at him.

"Pentru că nu vei fi singur."


	10. Chapter 09 - Roy Harper

It hadn't taken long for Richard to clear his head about The Fall and continue training. Or perhaps he was simply putting on a mask to conceal his feelings about training. Either way, Roy didn't care. Which was...weird.

Recently, Roy found himself more focused on his training than he thought possible. Normally, this would have been a completely normal occurrence, especially since Roy devoted most of his free time to hanging around Wally and Richard.

He was still extremely involved in the two boy's lives, but he no longer found himself _completely_ caring about their daily activities.

His mind drifted to what arrows he would practice with later when Wally spoke about his history paper, he focused on hand exercises when Dick talked about he and his friend Barbara tieing in the 100 meter dash, and he couldn't focus at all when Dick and Wally got into an argument about who would use the track first at training tomorrow.

For whatever reason, Roy Harper just couldn't focus.

He found that the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to be Speedy rather than Roy Harper. In fact, just being Speedy didn't satisfy his craving for action.

He wanted to work alone.

It was rather preposterous; for almost 2 years now he had been Green Arrow's sidekick, and he had fought side-by-side with Robin and Kid Flash just as often as with his uncle.

He had helped the children who held the cursed eyes of Medusa, and yet...why did part of him want to leave them now?

They still struggled to keep their eyes from changing, and Wally often complained that his head hurt after his eyes switched.

Since Wally had burned the notebook made by Dick's parents (The Amazing Flying Graysons), they had no idea what was wrong, or how to fix it if it became a problem.

On the same topic, Dick often complained that his mask burned if his eyes switched while wearing it. In fact, his eyes burned whenever they switched, regardless of whether of whether not they were covered.

This led right back to Roy.

Normally, the archer would baby the two teens, making sure they were comfortable under a pile of blankets on the couch, and recording all the data on their eyes that he could. However his recent change in attitude left this entire process blank.

Not that the boys minded, in fact, they rather enjoyed facing their own issues again.

The only thing to truly worry them was that there seemed to be no end to the same, painful cycle of Medusa-related things, and a new day was dawning for everyone.

Soon, Robin, Speedy, and Kid Flash would be granted access to the Justice Hall in Washington D.C. along with Aqualad and a "special acquaintance" of the Martian Manhunter.

With such a momentous occasion in sight, the boys couldn't have been happier.

The Day was drawing near.


	11. Chapter 10 - Headaches and Voices

The Day ended as fast as it had arrived, and Robin found himself settling nicely with his new team.

Even without Speedy, both Robin and Kid Flash were expressing themselves and having fun. It was never so easy to control their eyes either.

At first, it was difficult, but such a struggle was to be expected.

But day by day, the issue became less of a problem. Robin still felt the burning sensation and Kid Flash got headaches as often as he trained (he got headaches often), but it was nothing they couldn't handle.

They had welcomed Miss Martian and Superboy into the Young Justice team with open arms. In fact, the more time everybody spent together as a team, the more they felt like a family. A crazy, hormone-ridden, super family, each member keeping their own secrets.

They became closer and closer, relying on the same weekly routine.

Everyday after school, they would meet at Mount. Justice and train according to the plan set up by whoever was Den Mother for the week. After hitting the showers they would do bits and pieces of homework, read, and they'd pop a movie or TV show into the dvd player.

M'gnn would attempt to practice her cooking skills by making dinner with a recipe found in one of her many cookbooks, and they would all have dinner together like a family.

Every other day Batman would send the team on a mission, and they would get back around dinner time. Soon after, Batman would send for Robin to return home, and the others would also return home, excluding M'gnn and Superboy, as they lived at the Mountain.

Recently, the cycle included Wally lying down on the couch, complaining of headaches.

As another day ran by, so did another headache.

Robin placed a cold cloth over KF's eyes, pushing his hair back to feel his forehead.

"You don't have a fever…" he mumbled, checking his temperature with his own.

Kaldur turned another page of his Harry Potter book. "What could be causing such headaches?" he asked, glancing up from the pages.

It was indeed peculiar, especially since Kid Flash's super speed also sped up his metabolism, preventing sickness from hitting him too hard. That, however, left questions stirring in everyone's thoughts.

Robin knew that so far, the eyes of Medusa were the only thing that would be unaffected by his powers, making it the likely answer. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to say it. Not now, especially since KF had previously destroyed the notebook holding all useful information regarding their eyes.

_What's wrong with him?_

Kid Flash's eyes widened behind the cloth, and he sat up quickly, pressing the palm of his left hand to the side of his forehead.

"What's wrong?" M'gnn asked quickly, worried for her teammate.

"I-I…" The ginger speedster stuttered, not believing what he had just heard. It sounded like her, but...how could that be? "I heard a voice…" he admitted.

"A voice?" Superboy asked from the loveseat, confused as to if the hearing of voices was normal for humans.

"I...It sounded kinda like Arty," he mumbled, rubbing at his eyes. "It said, 'What's wrong with him? Is his concussed or something?' and then stopped."

Now it was Artemis' turn to panic. Her eyes widened, and she sat down on the arm of the couch, pale fingers running through her bright blonde locks.

"I...I thought that." she said, voice cracking slightly.

Robin turned to her, thoughts flying wildly around as he searched for answers. He was sure about the eyes being the cause of Wally's headaches now. "What?"

"I wondered if he was concussed but I didn't say it outloud. How did you…?" she trailed off, the entire team looking at Robin and Kid Flash, as they were both exchanging furious glances.

"Don't look at me like that!" Kid Flash shivered, shaking under Robin's glare.

"You read her thoughts, Wally! That's bad!" He shouted back.

"It's not my fault! Can't you recognize what this is?" The ginger boy replied, arms crossed.

"Oh, yeah," Robin rolled his eyes. "IT'S THE EYES OF MEDUSA. SORRY I CAN'T TELL YOU MORE, BUT THE NOTEBOOK IS GONE, I WONDER WHO'S FAULT THAT IS!"

Wally snorted angrily in response. "I didn't mean to burn it!"

"Well, now the whole team knows! So great, good job. It was our secret! You, and me, and Roy!"

"They would have found out anyway! We're a team, are you saying we would have hid this forever?!" Wally short back, face red with anger.

Robin stood up, arms shot down furiously. "What if one of us looses control? What if I freeze somebody? I'm not making that mistake again! I almost almost killed Roy, and you twice! I'm not going through that again!"

With that, Robin stormed out of the room, slamming the door of his room.


	12. Chapter 11 - The Secret

27 minutes.

It had been 27 minutes since KF and joined Robin in his room.

27 minutes that the team had spent standing in silence, not a word uttered between them. They just sat, silent, motionless, tention weighing heavily on their shoulders.

Superboy's enhanced hearing could pick up quiet sobs of "Don't wanna hurt you again, Wally." and "They'll hate us." from the other side of the door.

M'gnn felt the sadness, the fear, the _pain_ from the two boys, Robin specifically.

Finally, after what felt like much more than 27 minutes, Kid Flash and Robin emerged from the bedroom, Robin's head bowed down, sniffling slightly.

"We have something we need to tell you all." Wally began, helping Robin to the couch. "Robin and I met when we were little. Batman is his dad, and Flash is my uncle. They got us together because we both share this...trait."

Robin peeled his mask off, arm coming up to shield his eyes. Wally sighed. "You know how to control it, Rob." he muttered, rubbing soothing circles on his little brother's back. "Just for a minute."

The ash-haired boy slowly removed his arm, letting terrified blue orbs gaze out at his team. His left eye had a hint of red, the color threatening to spill over the blue.

"Wally and I have cursed eyes."

The following conversation was both an awkward strong of questions, and a weight off of their shoulders.

Kid Flash and Robin explained how Medusa created the Timeless World, and how the snake hid her eye powers in snakes found in others. So far, they explained, Robin and Kid Flash were the only ones with eye powers, aside from Robin's parents, and Medusa herself.

"Rob and I are the only living carriers." KF explained, turning to Robin. "Nobody even knows where the Timeless World is...hopefully, it'll die with us, but we can't be sure."

Artemis crossed the room, hands on her hips. "That doesn't explain why you heard my thoughts."

"Well...thus far, Robin and I each have one power. He petrifies people, and I project emotions onto people. This must be a new power...reading the thoughts of others."

Robin nodded. "When a power first develops, it's out of your control. I don't know what that's like, since I was born with mine, but you do, Wally."

As painful and confusing as it was, the secret had finally been spilled.


	13. Chapter 12 - Mistake

They could have discussed it more. It was a definite possibility.

But an alarm shattered the quick-growing silence and cause the team to spring into action. Batman's voice came over the monitor, delivering orders. Something about Cheshire and Sportsmaster and bombs.

The whole "eyes of Medusa" thing could wait. Right?

Once at the scene, the entire team gasped. A thick, red liquid painted words on the walls of a long, narrow hall. They had to keep walking...bombs were serious business.

As they walked, Aqualad leading, followed by Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, M'gnn, then Artemis.

_torn to shreds, broken marionettes ahead_

Miss Martian clung to Superboy, eyes shut tight. In could have been paint on the walls...

_reflections cast on the dungeon floor_

...but she knew it wasn't.

_in the puddle of crimson we create_

Artemis, knowing Cheshire better than the rest of her team, was shocked. Blood was not her sister's thing, was it? It had to have been their father...

_a death god waits, bringing shadows with his silhouette, _

...right?

_the chainsaw splatters blood among the chains_

Robin felt fear prick through his bones, sending shivers down his spine. He'd seen plenty of this sadistic foreplay in Gotham...

_my face, your face, coating both of our skins_

...but now his entire team had to face it.

_come on, now's the time to really let it go!_

Each member of the Young Justice team felt uneasy, if not nauseated by the display they followed. The hallway was almost done…

_spoiled beings of higher monarchies_

There wasn't so much a light at the end of the hall as there was a door.

_made sacrifices one by one_

A bright red door.

_rusty chains wrapping tightly 'round your feet_

Hand shaking, Aqualad reached for the doorknob.

_there's no escape, and there's no mistake i'll ever make,_

"Prepare yourselves," he said in a hushed voice, hand wrapping around the icy knob.

_the chainsaw, how i love the roar_

Robin reached up to straighten his mask when he realized it wasn't there.

_drowns out the screams, so you're never seen_

The panic of losing such a precious mask blinded him from what came next; Miss Martian screaming, Cheshire laughing, and Robin, standing still, eyes closed until...

_come on, now's the time to really let it go!_

...he opens bright red eyes to see Cheshire's panicked face; she's taunting him in her last words before all that's left is stone.

_What have I done?_


	14. Chapter 13 - Shattered Stone

Artemis' blood-curdling scream shattered the silence.

Her sister stood, face frozen in terror, breath still.

Cheshire had been petrified.

"Cheshire!" she sobbed, wrapping her arms around the stone figure. Something within the female archer snapped, and she turned to face Robin.

"Why'd you do that!?" she screamed, fists clenched. Robin stood still, eyes shut tight. Such an action made them burn painfully, and he searched through his utility belt. He found his bo staff and struggled to unwrap a cloth strip from the end of it. Kid Flash untied it for him and wrapped it around Robin's eyes, being careful to not look into them.

"You killed my sister!" Artemis shrieked, tearing her eyes from her sister's petrified form to glare at Robin.

"I-I didn't mean too…"

Kid Flash put his hands up in Robin's defence, trying to console the shell-shocked hero. "A-arty...it can be reversed…"

She didn't seem to hear him though. Instead, she lurched forward and wrapped her hands around his neck, lifting up up against the wall.

"Aremis!" Miss Martian yelled, trying to stop her, but with no avail.

Robin kicked his feet in the air, gasping for breath. "Nggnnn…" he moaned, still struggling to free himself from her iron grip.

Superboy finally pulled Artemis away, despite her kicking and screaming. "He killed her! He killed somebody!"

Wally, after making sure Robin was okay, stood directly in front of the histeric teenager and made his eyes go red. Near-instantly, she calmed down, before looking down at her hands. "I…"

Robin moaned loudly in the corner, coughing and gagging, hands gently cupping his bruised throat.

"I am so sorry!"

Wally took a firm grasp on her shoulders before speaking. "I know we can fix her. We've done it before, okay? But you gotta calm down." Artemis nodded, all eyes on her. How could she have been so...so...irresponsible?

So hypocritical.

So cruel.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a panicked shout.

"Robin is gone!"


	15. Chapter 14 - Jump City

He didn't go back to the tower.

He didn't go back to the batcave.

Robin snuck through his bedroom window, grabbed Peanut, his Flying Grayson Poster, and every Robin uniform he could find and stuffed it all in a backpack.

"Richard Grayson had cursed eyes, and he froze Cheshire in stone...but Robin is able to start over." Richard placed his sunglasses on top of his dresser, then crawled back out the window.

He pressed a mask to his face and started on his way.

Robin ran through the rain, back strapped tightly to his back.

This was his one chance to start over, and he knew it. The thought of beginning again gave him hope. It kept him going.

Robin knew that Richard Grayson was no more. The poor circus boy was gone.

Only the strong, masked hero remained.

Was that so bad? Was it so wrong that he yearned for such a fresh start? He knew he could achieve it easily.

Batman used to talk about a place rising upward on the crime rate scale. Jump City, he called it. Surely this Jump City could use a hero, especially one who had trained under the Dark Knight and the Justice League of America, as well as the Young Justice League of America.

And Robin knew as well as anybody that heroes lurked everywhere, and could be born from even the saddest of stories.

His own tragic story usually made his eyes turn red and burn under his mask, but now he felt clear.

Instead of the painful feeling given to him by the eyes of Medusa, Robin felt safe and comfortable, even as he ran through the rain to Jump City. Even as he _ran_ _away_ from his mistakes.

Richard wasn't one to run away, but maybe Robin was. Being both Richard Grayson and Robin, the Boy Wonder, prevented him from truly developing a healthy personality for either side of his self.

Finally, he saw a city, and knew it was time to finally chose Robin over Richard.

"Goodbye, Richard Grayson." he muttered, staring out at his new home. "There are no longer any living descendants of Medusa. The last living one died tonight."


	16. Chapter 15 - The Happiness Theory

Robin sat in his usual spot on the couch at the Titan Tower.

In his lap was an old, leather-covered notebook, pages filled with foreign scribbles. The dark-haired boy picked up a pencil and flipped through the worn pages until he came upon a small diagram.

A picture of an eyeball was drawn in the center, with labels such as "energie este activat de culoarea roșie" and "Puterea originală a petrification Medusa rămâne la descendants ei".

He ran a gloved thumb over the worn-out letters written on the paper, smiling fondly.

Finally turning to a new page, he found his hand trembling slightly at the thought of completing the notebook.

This blank page was the last page. Once he finished this notebook, he will have created his own version of the notebook Richard Grayson's parents had created long before his birth.

Was he ready to do this? What final statement could be made about the eyes of Medusa?

Deep down, Robin knew exactly what he wanted to write to end his notes on the eyes.

Looking up from his spot on the sofa, Robin smiled at the sight in front of him.

Beast Boy and Cyborg sat on the floor, playing a video game together and snacking on pizza. Starfire played around the kitchen, giggling and tossing different ingredients into an electric mixer. Raven levitated by the window, legs crossed, eyes closed, deep in meditation.

He turned back to notebook, wondering why it was taking such effort to write out one final statement.

It took courage to become the Boy Wonder after The Fall of the great Flying Graysons.

It took courage to befriend Wally West after nearly killing him.

It took courage to tell the Young Justice team about his eye abilities, even if Wally didn't feel the same way.

Many things in his previous life took courage and incredible strength, but...this didn't.

Finally, Robin pressed the top of his pencil to the worn paper and scribbled out strange letters and words.

"_Ochii Medusa nu trebuie să fie controlate sau utalize pentru luptă. Acestea sunt în siguranţă atunci cănd acoperite; Ele sunt în siguranţă cu dragoste."_

Finally, Robin closed the book and wrote in the title: _The Happiness Theory; A History of Medusa's Eyes._

* * *

><p><em>translation: "The eyes of Medusa need not be controlled or used for battle. They are safe when covered; they are safe with love."<em>


End file.
